Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday announced that a man had been arrested in Turkey for allegedly helping three British schoolgirls cross into Syria.
The girls' flight to join ISIS made international headlines and the fact that they passed through Turkey was well noted.
Cavusoglu also said that the man worked for the intelligence agency of one of the coalition countries that is fighting against ISIS. However, he did not elaborate, other than to say that he was not a national of the country that employed him, nor was he from the European Union or United States.
A report in the Turkish Daily Sabah, however, identified the suspect's employer as Canada. The report cited "sources close to the government" who "said the person was a member of Canada's intelligence agency."
The Canadian Secret Intelligence Service did not respond to a request for comment from BuzzFeed News. When reached, the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade referred the matter to the Department of Public Safety, "who are handling this file."
"We are aware of these reports," Jeremy Laurin, press secretary at the Office of the Minister of Public Safety, told BuzzFeed News in an email. "We do not comment on operational matters of national security."
Neither the U.S. State Department nor White House were able to provide further insight into the matter.
On Friday, the Daily Sabah posted a video it claimed showed the man, who is allegedly a Syrian citizen working for Canadian intelligence, aiding the British girls.
View this video on YouTube
A flurry of blame followed the girls' disappearance, with various figures in Turkey and Britain pointing fingers over just whose fault it was that the three adolescents had made it to Syria. A statement from the Turkish foreign ministry seemed to open a new round of the attempt to deny responsibility, saying that the man's arrest "showcased a complex problem involving intelligence wars."
"This incident should be a message to those always blaming Turkey on the debate on the flow of foreign terrorist fighters, and shows it is a problem more complicated than a mere border security issue," the ministry said.
The British Foreign Office, meanwhile, issued a statement of its own saying: "We are aware that an arrest has been made by the Turkish National Police and that the Metropolitan Police have informed the families of the three girls."
"There has been close cooperation between ourselves and the Turkish authorities, and the foreign secretary is in regular contact with his Turkish counterpart," the British statement continued.